Walcott: It’s been a challenging few weeks to be honest

Rob McCarthy
Theo Walcott: Was on target on the win over West Ham

Theo Walcott believes Arsenal are on track to getting back to their best after seeing off West Ham to pick up their first league win since February.

The England forward hit the second goal in what proved to be a routine 3-0 victory, with Mesut Ozil opening the scoring and substitute Olivier Giroud wrapping up a vital three points for the Gunners.

It was just a fourth win in 11 games in all competitions for Arsenal, with continued protests against Arsene Wenger adding to an unhappy backdrop of late.
Wenger is still yet to announce whether he will sign a new contract to remain as manager or leave at the end of the season.

But his players finally produced a result to ease some of the mounting pressure on his shoulders and, following on from the fighting 2-2 draw with Manchester City on Sunday, Walcott feels things are starting to come good again.

“We had to work for it, it has obviously been a challenging few weeks to be honest,” he said.

“We had to get the first goal, when we got the first goal the nerves went away and then we just relaxed and played our football and hopefully it is going to breed a bit more confidence going into the next few games in a busy April.

“We just had to get that first goal, once we got it people calmed down a bit more and everyone was a bit more relaxed playing the football we know is why we play for this fantastic club.

“Everyone just needs to remember how good we are as a team, as individuals. It is coming into motion, you saw some signs at Man City and more today and hopefully it is going to go on and on.”

Walcott said the victory was built on keeping out West Ham, with Arsenal having kept just three Premier League clean sheets since the turn of the year.

“We knew we had to get the win today, we know how important it was,” he said.

“But more importantly we haven’t been defending well as a whole unit, not keeping clean sheets. We wanted to get a clean sheet, simple as that.

“We know we are going to score goals so if we get that clean sheet we will win games, we needed to go back to basics and we did today, everyone defended well together and we were very well structured. When we do that well, everything else comes into play.”